7 things you should know about...

Virtual Worlds
Scenario

As part of her coursework as a first-year medical student, Marie participates in a virtual clinic several times
during the semester. The clinic is an online, animated world populated by avatars representing doctors,
nurses, and patients controlled by medical students
and volunteers. Marie assumes the role of a doctor in
the virtual world, and for each session, the clinic is a
different kind of office: an emergency room, a clinic
that serves primarily needy patients without insurance, and others. For the first session, the clinic is a
family practice, and through the animated computer
interface, Marie controls her avatars movements and
conversations in the virtual world.
The world is set up to closely mimic a real doctors
office. Marie walks her avatar into an examination
room, where she finds the patient waiting. By typing
dialogue, Marie speaks to the patient, introducing herself, and the patient stands up and introduces himself.
An important element of becoming a doctor is learning
how to interact well with patients, and the virtual clinic
gives Marie an opportunity to do that. Maries avatar
and the patientwho is the avatar of another medical
studenttalk about whats bothering the man, which
turns out to be a flare-up of gout. Marie and the other
participants see the action of the virtual world through
3D animations from their computers. Marie asks questions, reads the patients chart, and conducts a clinical
examination.
Faculty monitor the sessions in the virtual world and
can interrupt them to offer suggestions to student doctors about better ways to ask certain questions and
to earn the patients confidence. Because the virtual
world has both real and simulated components, Marie
finds that it requires her to be extremely conscious of
her actions and the words she uses when interacting
with patients, a skill she will need to apply when in a
real office with a real patient.

What is it?

A virtual world is an online environment whose residents are avatars representing individuals participating online. Users of virtual
worlds design their environments and often their avatars as well,
from gender to clothing and hairstyle, and control how those avatars communicate, move, create things, and interact. The functioning of a virtual world can mirror that of the real world, or it can allow
residents to do such things as fly, wander around underwater, or
teleport themselves to other locations. Todays virtual worlds are
immersive, animated, 3D environments that operate over the Internet, giving access to anyone in the world. Although many online
games take place in such environments, the concept of a virtual
world does not require the elements of a game, such as rules or
an explicit objective. Residents of a virtual world have the freedom
to do and be nearly anything they want, limited only by the design
of the environment.

Whos doing it?

Many colleges and universities are experimenting with virtual

worlds for educational purposes. Dartmouth College has begun
creating a virtual world to train community emergency response
teams. In this world, volunteers learn how to cope with a range of
emergencies by experiencing simulated, 3D disaster areas while
engaging with othersvirtuallyto deal with unfolding events.
Harvard University created River City, a virtual world that presents
users with an outbreak of disease, allowing them to move through
the environment, make inquiries, and examine data to try to discover the source of the illness. Using a game engine, the University of British Columbia developed a virtual world based on real
archaeological sites in which students use contemporary materials
and techniques to create replicas of structures of the time.

How does it work?

A virtual world requires choosing or building a platform. Several

vendors currently offer a selection of environments, with some
providing considerable latitude to develop and customize a particular space within the virtual world. Although many worlds are
developed for games, the benefit often lies in the lack of a game
structure. Depending on the desired educational outcome, an
instructor might use a game format, but virtual worlds hold significant potential for a learner-ledrather than an outcome-based
model of exploration and knowledge development.

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Virtual Worlds
Once an environment has been identified and the parameters
defined, users register and create avatars. An instructor might
assign times during which students are expected to log in and
inhabit the virtual world, or participation might be left up to students, who can reside in the world when they choose. Participants
move and communicate and create items in the virtual world based
on available resources and the educational goal, which might be
very loosely defined. With this kind of learning, known as constructivist learning, learners can freely make decisions and interact with
others, initiating and directing their own learning. The low stakes of
an online environment encourage participants to experimentto
learn by trial and errorin a way not feasible in the real world.

Why is it significant?

Using virtual worlds for education has significant potential to foster constructivist learning, putting students in contact with others in an immersive environment that challenges them to figure
things out for themselves, without explicit learning objectives
and assessment. Students are increasingly comfortable with
this kind of learning, not to mention with electronic communications and interactions, and for many, avatar-to-avatar activity is
as real as face-to-face contact. Indeed, behind every avatar is
a real person controlling the avatars actions and words. If students consider avatars legitimate representations of themselves
and of others, opportunities flourish for meaningful interactions
among a broad range of students and other users, regardless of
their physical location.

The line between virtual and real starts to blur as activities in the
virtual world seep into the real world and vice versa. For example, the developers of Second Life, a popular virtual environment,
decided that users own the places and things they create. A market has emerged for residents of virtual worlds to buy and sell virtual assets, but with real money. In one case, a user created a
game in a virtual world that he then sold to a real company, which
will market it for cell phones. Users can create a business and
see how avatars respond to it. Residents could be employed by
a virtual company, performing tasks and having interactions that
would happen in the real world. In this way, users can develop
skills, including effective communication, that could be applied
later in the real world, all within the comparative safety of a virtual
environment.

What are the downsides?

Many educational courses and programs have defined learning

goals, and for some, the effort required to design a virtual world
is not justified in terms of specific learning objectives. Unguided
exploration is an effective learning style for certain students in certain subjects, but virtual worlds present a risk of students simply
goofing off, not participating at all, or engaging in inappropriate or
offensive behavior. Other students, despite good intentions, sim-

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ply dont perform well without clear-cut tasks and goals. Moreover,
some students might find a virtual world so engaging that it distracts them from work in other courses.
On a practical level, the smooth operation of virtual worlds
requires robust hardware and fast Internet connections. Some
virtual worlds reside on corporate servers, and course activities
that use those worlds depend on the availability of the application, which can be spotty. With steep technology requirements
also comes a greater burden on support staff to ensure the infrastructure can handle user demands. Finally, while students in
technology-focused programs will likely be comfortable with the
technical side of virtual worlds, such as using scripting, students
in other disciplines might find this aspect especially challenging.

Where is it going?

Virtual worlds have a long history of use in games, but efforts to

use the technology for educational pursuits are at an early stage.
Growing numbers of educators and organizations are experimenting with and creating educational programs using virtual worlds,
broadening the scope of activities available to students. As the
line between the virtual and the real continues to blur, so too does
the line between formal and informal learning. Increasing comfort among educators using virtual worlds also has considerable
potential to develop worlds and activities that promote interdisciplinary learning. Early adopters from different disciplines are forming nascent educator communities and sharing best practices for
effective integration of these tools into education.

What are the implications for

teaching and learning?

As is often the case with a new technology, adapting existing

practices to a new medium encourages reflection on desired
goals and effective implementation. Virtual worlds allow different and new types of interactions that provide better educational
experiences for some students. Computer gaming is an increasingly common activity among younger students, and exploring the
educational potential for virtual worlds gives institutions an opportunity to incorporate a medium that students enjoy into learning.
Through a virtual environment, students can interact in ways they
find comfortable, seeking out others who share their interests and
inclinations. Virtual worlds facilitate unintentional learning, where
students discover and create knowledge not for its own sake but in
order to accomplish something they want to do, resulting in stronger comprehension and deeper knowledge.

www.educause.edu/eli
June 2006